No large amount of expense was involved yet the survey was very complete and was made under the following heads: Manufacturers, stores, milk, sewerage, ice, wells, toilets, disposal of garbage, refuse, ashes and night soil. How many other health departments know as much about their communities as this one now does? Rural school board members of Lucas county held their third annual meeting in Toledo January 20. Health inspection and improvements of rural schools were discussed. The meeting was held in the old Central high school annex. Frank B. Pearson, state superintendent of public instruction, made the opening address; Prof. Robert A. Cummons of the Bowling Green normal school, talked on the medical side of the health question; Dr. L. E. Phelps, of the Toledo Dental Association, on the dental side, and Dr. A. W. Trettien, of the Toledo University, on the psychological side. URGES ERECTION OF DISTRICT SANATORIUM FOR FIVE COUNTIES. Conferences were held recently by the director of the Division of Public Health Education and Tuberculosis, with the county commissioners of Licking, Perry, Fairfield, Muskingum and Coshocton counties in regard to the construction of a District Tuberculosis Hospital for that district. Arrangements were made for a joint meeting of the commissioners of these counties in the near future. OHIO STATE BOARD OF HEALTH Vol. VIII. No. 2. February, 1917 TABLE OF CONTENTS EDITORIAL SECTION: Choosing the Pound of Cure.... Use the Tools at Hand..... A Dollars and Cents Argument for Tuberculosis Sanatoria. The Mayor's Mistake..... The Importance of Birth Registration. The Relation of Industry to the Health Department. Dr. C. D. Selby, 66 Prosecutor Reminds Doctors and Midwives of Law. School Board to Compel Vaccination of Pupils and Teachers. The Ohio Institute for Public Efficiency; Its Relation to Health Depart ments. Fred C. Croxton, Director, Social Welfare Department, The American Academy of Public Health............. The Present Status of Milk Supervision in the Cities of Ohio. Dr. Frank Association Urges Higher Development of Dairy and Milk Inspection.......... Water for Drinking or Culinary Purposes Provided on Cars and Water for Drinking Purposes Provided at Stations by Interstate Interstate Transportation of Persons Having Contagious or In- 888 888 Sanitation of Camps Occupied by Migratory Workers... Investigation of Lead Poisoning and Lacquer Fumes.. 90 91 Eleventh Conference of Ohio Tuberculosis Hospital Superintendents. ... 92 93 Summary of Notifiable Diseases Reported During December, 1916... Mr. Health Officer, Send Your Summary Reports Promptly.... PAGE Trachoma Investigation Progressing. 98 Conference of Pennsylvania Physicians Called By Department of Labor and Industry ... Activities of Division of Public Health Education and Tuberculosis... The Public Health Exhibit at Marion.. 99 100 101 Report on State Health Exhibit..... Child Hygiene Exhibit Shown During Farmers' Week. 101 102 Report of the Division of Laboratories for January.. Public Health Nurses and Their Work.. 102 103 Railroad to Co-operate With Health Officials in Its Territory. 112 EDITORIAL SECTION CHOOSING THE POUND OF CURE. The board of health of a city in eastern Ohio recently ordered the vaccination of all school teachers and children in the city to the number of over 5,000, following the discovery that a pastor of a church had smallpox, according to a local newspaper. Another town in northern Ohio is facing the necessity of spending $10,000 to handle the smallpox situation, council contemplating the transfer of funds to the health department for this purpose. It is generally accepted that vaccination against smallpox if generally practiced will practically eliminate this disease. Statistics collected over a period of years in Germany where vaccination is most strongly insisted upon, show what results can be accomplished. Evidences equally convincing can be shown by many communities in the United States. With all this evidence before us and with the technique of vaccination perfected and performed as it is today, it is surprising that we permit smallpox to the extent that it is found in Ohio. Dr. Carroll Fox of the United States Public Health Service, now in Piqua, says that he is for abolishing quarantine of smallpox cases and letting the patient and the exposed person run at large. Then if any unvaccinated person gets the disease, it is his own fault, but after recovery patients should be fined and imprisoned. All of which is merely another way of saying that if any persons or communities get this disease, they have only themselves to blame for not protecting themselves by vaccination, deliberately choosing the expensive pound of cure rather than the ounce of prevention. * * * USE THE TOOLS AT HAND. It was recently reported that a prominent citizen of Ohio who was interested and active in social welfare had written to Governor Cox and to Speaker Hopple of the Legislature urging certain legislation affecting, among other things, health administration. He recommended that the powers of the State board of Health and of local boards and health officers be enlarged, and was quoted as follows: "They should have the power of compulsory commitment to hospitals and compulsory detention therein, and this authority should not be interfered with by habeas corpus proceedings. Their rules should have the force of statutes. They should be empowered to take pre ventive measures and these measures should be capable of legal enforcement." This interest in health administration is gratifying, of course, to those engaged in the work. However, it might be well to call attention to the fact that even under the present laws, regulations of the State Board of Health have the force of statutes. The State Board also has the power to order removed to a tuberculosis hospital or sanatorium a tuberculous person who has been shown to be a menace to the health of the community. Local boards have the power to make and enforce local regulations not in conflict with those of the State Board. Local boards may remove to an isolation hospital or may quarantine persons suffering with infectious or contagious diseases. Recently a law went into effect requiring the dropping of a prophylactic into the eyes of newborn infants and the reporting of inflammation in the eyes of the newborn. A large number of what appear to be clear violations of this law and which have resulted in the impairment of vision in some cases, have been brought to the attention of prosecuting attorneys in various parts of the state. In only a few instances have the prosecutors taken any action in regard to the matter presented to them and in fewer still have proceedings been brought. The Journal would suggest as it already has in other connections that a firmer enforcement of existing laws by officials possessed of common sense and backbone would eliminate many demands for new legislation. With the General Assembly now in session the spectacle is presented of a veritable rain of bills descending on the floor of both houses intended to cure all the real and fancied ills of the body politic. We believe that even a cursory examination of the statutes by those who seek to improve conditions in the state would disclose remedies which they do not know exist, and that closer co-operation between administrative officers and lay workers and organizations, together with conferences upon proposed measures, would save some expense and much time and fruitless effort every two years as well as improve administration at all times. It is admitted that as advances are made and the scope of public health work broadens, conditions may be met which require new enactments, but what the Journal is contending for is a more intelligent and active use of the machinery already provided. A DOLLARS AND CENTS ARGUMENT FOR TUBERCULOSIS SANATORIA. In the following editorial taken from The Optimist, published by the patients of the Ohio State Sanatorium, the writer takes issue with an editorial in the Columbus Dispatch and shows by statistics that the money invested in sanatoria for the treatment of the tuberculous shows a higher rate of return than the capital of most industrial con cerns, |